The Peeks, Patetico Mondo, Lock/Jaw & The Scarred @ The California Institute Of Abnormal Arts (CIA) - 11.11.11

Just a quick post to say I had a great time at the CIA last Friday night. Took some photos and created a photo album. You can check that out here. Below are a few highlights.

Troy Walker Halloween Show at Viva Cantina - 10.26.11

Wednesday evening my son and I headed over to Viva Cantina in Burbank to catch Troy Walker and his Halloween show. Troy performs every Wednesday, but neither of us had ever seen him before. We discovered when we got there that we were in the minority. The crowd was mostly made up of regulars who come to see Troy every week. We also discovered that we were considered you amongst this crowd. Don't lat that statement mislead you. The folks may have been older, but they knew how to get up, shake it and have a good time.

Check out this article on Troy from 1999. It gives you some history and a flavor of the man that is Troy Walker. He's got an amazing story. It was written by Jonny Whiteside for LA Weekly. Whiteside has been a fan for ages and is a Wednesday regular at Troy's shows.

Here are a few photos from the evening. A fuller photo album can be found on my Flickr account here. You probably need a little context to understand the photos. As mentioned earlier it was a Halloween show which is why Troy and the patrons are dressed in costume. You'll notice flapper, sailors, Little Orphan Annie and King Arthur (Or some knight) in the photos. The guy in the cowboy hat, though I don't believe was in costume. Viva Cantina is in the equestrian district of Burbank and so the bar is basically a country bar and attracts a lot of the local cowboys. So I think that guy was just being himself. Also you'll notice that Troy is in two outfits. He began the evening in the sunglasses and turban and performed for about an hour. He then took a break and came back dressed with the fedora and mustache. He then gave us another hour. It was a full evening of pure entertainment.

And the baby doll? What is up with that? Well when Troy first came out in the turban outfit he had a big pregnant belly and then at a couple points in the show he gave birth. First he birthed the little doll and then later on he revealed a stuffed monkey. The monkey ended up being pretty funny because the monkey got stuck on his belt or something and it took about five minutes of Troy bantering and joking with the audience before he got the thing out.




























































Also I shot a little video which captures the spirit of the performance and the evening.

Troy performs "My Girl" and "Annie Had A Baby" in this clip.

Lock/Jaw at Guitar Merchant with Fallujah 71 - 09.30.11

This post is quite late in coming. As you can see by the date in the title, this show was weeks ago. It happened to be in a week where I wasn't feeling great and so I didn't end up processing the photos until last week and then I just never got around to posting them. Just yesterday I realized that I never put the photos up. So better late than never.

This was a show at Guitar Merchant with my son's band Lock/Jaw. Fallujah 71 also played and I took some photos of them. The Peeks and another band played, but I didn't get any photos of them. The venue was cool. It is this little backroom to a music store. It wasn't too crowded and the crowd was basically friends and family from what I could gather. It made for a fun evening. Several times people from the crowd came up to sing with the band. My son join Fallujah for a song and some kids came up to sing with Lock/Jaw as well. It was just that kind of friendly atmosphere. I had a great time.

The entire photo album is here.

Jonny Whiteside's Messaround - 09.18.11

Sunday evening I went to Jonny Whiteside's Messaround at Viva Cantina. The opening band was the Jonny Whiteside Messaround Band, which was basically the house band, at least that is how a couple members of the band described themselves to me. The played a great mostly blues set, but there was some rock and roll thrown in there as well. They were a real pleasant surprise because I went to the show to see my son's band and The Gears and wasn't expecting Blues. It was a nice way to ease into the evening.

Next up was my son's band Lock/Jaw. They did really well. They also attracted a nice contingency of kids in the audience, which it sounded like was something different for this kind of show. Jonny Whiteside himself seemed to appreciate the young energy in the room.

Another cool thing was that Keith Morris of Black Flag and Circle Jerks fame was there at the beginning of the night and saw my son's band play. He told my son he liked their set, which was amazing to here. He's basically a living legend in my son's eyes. Okay I'd say in my eyes as well.

After that the eclectic nature of the evening took a left turn with the band Little Faith. They played Spirituals, many of which I'd heard before. They had two men singing on most of the songs. The band's leader was on keyboard. They also had a great fiddle player. For one of the instrumentals they performed she took lead on "How Great Thou Art." I really enjoyed their set.

Following "Little Faith" was my son's friend's band The Peeks. An interesting side note is that my son got the gig through a real random meeting. A few weeks back Burbank was switching out the electric meters. The day a representative came my son was at home. The man who did the work saw some writing on my son's pants or shirt of something and so he knew he was into some old punk bands. The guy ended up being Chip Kinman of The Dils. Anyway, my son being the social butterfly that he is strikes up a friendship with this guy and then meets his son Giuliano who sings for The Peeks and next thing he knows he's being hooked up to play at this Gears show. When he first found out and told me we both went through the roof. We both absolutely love The Gears. I have their record on vinyl and on CD.

So The Peeks rocked the house. One of their last songs was "White Lightening" and Chip was invited up on stage to help on vocals. You can see him in one of the photos with the glasses. The song ripped and it was great to see father and son having such a great time through music.

Then came The Gears. They may be getting on in years, but they still have got the stuck. Axxel G. Reese and Kid Spike were there from the original line up. The drummer was definitely a younger guy and I'm not sure if it was Brian Redz on bass or not. They had plenty of punk rock swagger and they seemed to really enjoy having the young kids at their show. Most of the time there was a small mosh pit. I say small because the show was in a Mexican restaurant so there wasn't a ton of room, but the kids made use of the space they had. During "Don't Be Afraid To Pogo" it was great to see the usual moshing transform into some old school Pogo-ing.

While The Gears played I noticed that in the back of the room Jonny Whiteside had his son with him and he was rocking out. For the last number he brought his son up to the dance floor my son actually put him on his shoulders and the kid had a great time. At one point Axxel put the microphone up to him so he could sing along. So there was fun to be had for young and old.

So overall I had a great time and on top of everything else the show was free. How can you beat that? Featured here are photos of all the acts. More photos are in my flickr set for the night. You can check them out here.